Japanese woman who was the world's oldest person at 116 has died

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Japanese woman who was the world's oldest person at 116 has died

2025-01-04 17:07 Last Updated At：17:11

TOKYO (AP) — Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was the world’s oldest person according to Guinness World Records, has died, an Ashiya city official said Saturday. She was 116.

Yoshitsugu Nagata, an official in charge of elderly policies, said Itooka died on Dec. 29 at a care home in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, central Japan.

Itooka, who loved bananas and a yogurt-flavored Japanese drink called Calpis, was born on May 23, 1908. She became the oldest person last year following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas, according to the Gerontology Research Group.

When she was told she was at the top of the World Supercentenarian Rankings List, she simply replied, “Thank you.”

When Itooka celebrated her birthday last year, she received flowers, a cake and a card from the mayor.

Born in Osaka, Itooka was a volleyball player in high school, and long had a reputation for a sprightly spirit, Nagata said. She climbed the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake twice.

She married at 20, and had two daughters and two sons, according to Guinness.

Itooka managed the office of her husband’s textile factory during World War II. She lived alone in Nara after her husband died in 1979.

She is survived by one son and one daughter, and five grandchildren. A funeral service was held with family and friends, according to Nagata.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the world's oldest person is now 116-year-old Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was born 16 days after Itooka.

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Bondi announces charges in MS-13 killing as the Trump administration highlights its gang crackdown

2025-04-04 23:26 Last Updated At：23:31

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Three alleged MS-13 gang members have been federally charged in connection with a killing a decade ago in Florida, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday, seeking to highlight the Trump administration's push to prosecute violent gangs.

Bondi joined law enforcement officials in Fort Lauderdale to promote the Justice Department's efforts to go after the gang, which the Republican administration has designated a “foreign terrorist organization" and has seized on as the threat posed by illegal immigration.

“More arrests are coming,” Bondi said. “If you are a gang member living in this country, I’d self-deport right now because we’re coming after you.”

The three alleged gang members are among nine who have been arrested in four killings in South Florida in 2014 and 2015. The three men federally charged last month are accused of participating in the killing of someone who was stabbed about 100 times and then shot, the attorney general said.

Jose Ezequiel Gamez-Maravilla and Wilber Rosendo Navarro-Escobar were arrested in Florida. Hugo Adiel Bermudez-Martinez was arrested in Minnesota. Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the men.

The violent killings in South Florida were carried out using knives or machetes, authorities say. The cases were reopened in 2020 after going cold, and one of the investigations led to a multi-day excavation to recover the body of Joel Canizales-Lara in 2021, after he was reported missing in 2014.

The announcement comes a week after Bondi lauded the arrest of the alleged East Coast leader of the MS-13 gang.

In the past decade, the Justice Department has intensified its focus on MS-13, which originated as a neighborhood street gang in Los Angeles but grew into a transnational gang based in El Salvador. The gang has members in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and thousands of members across the U.S. with numerous branches or cliques.

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.